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Erie still willing to collaborate with neighbors despite recent pullback on IGA

Town extended agreement with Dacono before leaving IGA with Boulder County, Lafayette

By John Aguilar Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
07/21/2013 05:00:00 PM MDT

Erie appears to be pursuing a bit of an isolationist strategy of late, announcing last month that in October it will pull out of a countywide intergovernmental agreement it signed a decade ago so that it has more freedom to invite commercial development to its western flank.

But just two weeks before making that announcement, the town quietly finalized an extension of a 2005 intergovernmental agreement -- or IGA -- with the city of Dacono that establishes annexation limitations for each municipality along Interstate 25 and calls for cooperation between the communities on joint economic development projects. The IGA's expiration date was extended from 2015 to 2025, with an automatic renewal to 2035.

So why the peace and love on the east side of town and the rancor on the west?

Erie Trustee Paul Ogg chalks it up to there being fewer cooks in the kitchen in the agreement with Dacono.

"It's hard enough for two municipalities to come to an agreement, but when you throw in a third party, you have third-party needs," he said.

That third party in question is Boulder County, Ogg said, which entered into a 20-year "super IGA" with Erie, Lafayette and several other towns and cities in the county in 2003. The agreement, which parties are permitted to opt out of after 10 years, is designed to head off annexation disputes, coordinate planning and development across the county and ensure that land preservation is part of the mix.

The county, which is particularly interested in controlling sprawl and ensuring that the bucolic and agrarian nature of east Boulder County remains intact, has purchased substantial tracts of open space along U.S. 287 between Lafayette and Erie over the last couple of decades.

But Ogg, and several of his colleagues on the Board of Trustees, feel that Erie has every right to reap the benefits of additional sales tax revenues that could be generated in the highway corridor, especially at the southeast corner of U.S. 287 and Arapahoe Road. They point to the fact that Lafayette brings in triple the amount of sales tax revenue per year that Erie does, largely due to commercial development that has sprung up along U. S. 287 north of Baseline Road.

While open space and rural preservation are critical, Ogg said there is room for retail development on Erie's western border like Lafayette has enjoyed.

"With Boulder County, I feel they are restricting our land use decisions in ways I'm not comfortable with," he said. "Erie needs to have the authority to make its own planning decisions."

Erie's decision to abandon the "super IGA" led Lafayette to do the same last week. But Erie trustee Janice Moore said the town has not turned its back on collaboration with its neighbors to the west. She said negotiations are ongoing to craft a new IGA that better reflects the tremendous growth Erie has undergone in the last 15 years.

"Being a good neighbor is always important," she said. "It's about trying to find the balance for Erie to have retail opportunities and also rural preservation."

Dacono Mayor Charles Sigman said his city and Erie have always had a "good working relationship." That came about, he said, as a result of each community agreeing that I-25 makes a sensible dividing line that shouldn't be crossed when it comes to luring development.

"We know what the boundaries are and we know that what we do in our community will affect their community and what they do in their community will affect ours," Sigman said. "There is nothing to be gained from crossing I-25 and stepping on toes."

Not that Erie has always lived in harmony with its eastern neighbors. In 2007, the town sued Frederick over Frederick's effort to annex land west of I-25, near Colo. 52. Frederick won the case in court, and the decision was upheld on appeal.

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